Discovering Rachel has a new look!

Hi there!

Welcome to my new website! Take a look around and feel free to click on anything and everything 🙂 I decided to revamp my blog after much internal debate and discussion with Jennifer. Please excuse the dust though since not everything is set as you can see in the archives (not all old posts are migrated yet).

With this new look, I’m hoping to attract more readers and give a better sense of my blog’s direction. Grab a cup of coffee and something to munch on, and I’ll do a rundown of everything below in a Q&A format:

What kind of blog is this?

I would describe this blog as a collection of memories, experiences, and thoughts that I want to share. I like to write posts about my travels and amazing food that I have eaten. Aside from that, I write about my life in college in hopes that other students find comfort in a common struggle.

How do you see this blog change in the future?

Ultimately, I am not making money off of this blog, and I want to see this blog as a place where other people like me (read: students, travelers, foodies) can connect and relate to each other. This blog originally started off as a diary-like outlet for my family overseas to read about the start of my college life back in August of 2015. Gradually, this blog became a place for self-reflection and, as the blog title says, discovery. I don’t have a set “destination” for this blog, but this blog will change (along with me). As I grow and develop as an individual, I see this blog evolving and developing with me every step of the way.

This blog is not intended to be a typical fashion, travel, or lifestyle blog. For this entire academic year, I have been blogging about my experience studying abroad as part of my Gilman scholarship project proposal. The scholarship intends to increase accessibility to the study away experience for minority students. Likewise, I’m hoping to fill the void of female Asian American bloggers who share their struggles and experiences. I want to create a community of people who are engaged in their communities and willing to bridge the gap of minority representation. I’m all about supporting fellow Asian Americans, and I’m excited to see where this community will go next.

Why did you decide to change websites?

I don’t regret starting my blog on Weebly. It is a super user-friendly interface with easy-to-use widgets and I would recommend it to someone who’s a beginner in making websites and has no coding experience. However, it becomes very limiting when I want to do more. It’s difficult to customize at a more advanced level. It’s not the greatest at SEO (search engine optimization), which means that it’s more difficult for others to search for my blog posts on search engines like Google. Switching to WordPress.org gave me more freedom in choosing plugins and widgets to customize the layout of my website. I also have my own domain now! The blog name is the URL of the website: discoveringrachel.com

What are some new highlights of the new blog?

Carousel: At the top of the homepage, you probably noticed the blog post carousel. You can find the top 15 most recent blog posts here.Categories: All blog posts have been categorized into three categories: travel, lifestyle, and college for easy searching. Oh! And there’s a search bar at the top right corner.Current Location widget: On the left side, you can see that there’s a map with a little dot on it. I update this whenever I travel, so you’ll know where I am when you’re reading my blog!Comments: As I have mentioned before, I want my blog to create a sense of community among readers. I would LOVE to read comments on blog posts, whether it’s advice, words of encouragement, general comments, or anything that’s on your mind. I’m here to listen and learn.

Who is helping you with the website?

The one and only Jennifer. See the About page for more information about my awesome friend from college. She’s the one who helps migrate posts from Weebly to WordPress and fixes code when WordPress display the text on my blog posts weirdly.

Will you have an upload schedule?

In short, no. As always, I try to publish a new blog post every two weeks, averaging about 2-3 posts a month. However, schoolwork is the highest priority for me, so there might be times that I go a month without posting- like this month!

I want to stay updated. Do you have social media?

In addition to a new look for the blog, I opened new social media accounts for this blog. As you can see from the sidebar and the top header, there are social media icons. I created a Facebook page for my blog since I decided to stop posting blog updates on my personal Facebook account, so please like the Facebook page if you want to stay informed. The most recent photos on my Instagram feed are displayed in the footer of my webpage. All posts on these accounts would be travel or blog-related.

At times, it reaches a point where we need to revamp our blogs; I also did that around two weeks ago and I’m definitely loving its current look just as I am loving your current layout. There is no doubt that this one looks much better, right? Anyway, it’s so nice to see you write of your experiences; I’m certain that since you showcase of your transitions in life, many will be inspired!